Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 6/8/08

Can Usher hold on to the #1 spot? Who's almost platinum and how does Lil Wayne crack the top 200 BEFORE his album drops?

This week Usher got dethroned from the top position but still managed to sell 144,500 copies, hit the Gold mark, and stay in the top 3. Here I Stand grabbed the #3 spot and was bested by new releases from Disturbed and the newest installment of Now That's What I Call Music, respectively. Ashanti's long-awaited Declaration, amidst rumors that the album is slated to flop, debuted at #6 with 86,200 copies sold. Chris Brown's Exclusive makes an unexpected jump on the charts from #56 to #10 with a surge in sales. The young R&B star sold 36,200 copies this week, a 261% increase from last week.

Mariah Carey takes a slight drop from #8 to #13 with E=MC2 selling 30,100 copies--just less than 3k shy of the coveted platinum plaque. Meanwhile Bun B rounds out the Top 5 for Hip Hop/ R&B with 23,900 copies of II Trill sold this week.

Further down the charts Flobots stay within the Top 30 at #27 as Fight With Tools sells 17,100 copies. Rick Ross' Trilla falls from #25 to #38 with 13,400 sold. What is surprising is that the highly anticipated Tha Carter III album from Lil Wayne has managed to sell 4,000 copies and land a #167 spot on the Top 200 without even having been released yet.